After months of US military pressure on the Maduro regime, American forces carried out a raid on Caracas in the early hours of 3 January, abducting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife and airlifting them out of the country. They are now being held in New York City, where Maduro faces charges related to narcotics trafficking and weapons offenses.

At a press conference held last Saturday, US President Donald Trump confirmed that Washington would administer the country for an indefinite period. He also hinted at launching a further military operation should Venezuela’s vice president refuse to cooperate with the United States.

Trump’s handling of Maduro marks a dangerous turning point in US foreign policy, one that openly tramples state sovereignty, particularly when read alongside his threats toward Iran, Lebanon, Gaza, Cuba, and Greenland.

This moment inevitably recalls events from twenty-three years ago, when the United States invaded Iraq to overthrow President Saddam Hussein on the basis of flimsy public justifications and under a broader American strategy branded as the “war on terror.” That framework was activated and sustained for an entire era in the Middle East, exacting a devastating toll on Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries, measured in the blood of their peoples, the erosion of their security and social fabric, and the destruction of their economic resources.

US foreign strategies, at their core, are driven by the pursuit of American self-interest, often with little regard for the costs borne by the societies caught in their path. Today, a growing number of countries appear to be confronting the risk of absorbing the consequences of Trump-era American strategy, one that threatens to push beyond already dangerous boundaries, especially for those on the receiving end.

READ: How the Palestinian diaspora in Venezuela reacted to Maduro’s abduction

Economic objectives were never absent from past US strategic thinking, even when they operated alongside broader geopolitical and security goals, often without being openly........

© Middle East Monitor